WHAT DOES SCIENCE TELL US ABOUT GAY ADOPTION?

Is growing up with two gay parents really detrimental to children? Not according to science!

Two years ago, many people went berserk over the fact that the Maltese government was legislating adoption for gay couples. Two years on, Armageddon came in the form of Brexit rather than gay couples nurturing children, and according to science, these kids are receiving a good, healthy and happy upbringing. Here’s why:

It’s a choice

There are two strands through which heterosexual couples get pregnant: they plan it out, or have little accidents. There’s nothing wrong with either situation, but the fact that, for some couples, getting pregnant isn’t hard work means that they’re not always as prepared or as driven as parents. According to Abbie Goldberg, a psychologist at Clark University in the USA, gay parents “tend to be more motivated, more committed than heterosexual parents on average, because they chose to be parents.” The hardships incurred by gay parents looking to adopt is not for the fainthearted.

They tend to be more tolerant

According to 28 out of 46 adults interviewed by the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, growing up with one or more gay parents taught children to be more tolerant, empathetic and open-minded. This meant that these children could also pursue hobbies, interests and jobs that would normally be frowned upon for their gender, making them feel freer and more fulfilled.

The children’s education doesn’t suffer

The Journal of Marriage and Family discovered that children with two heterosexual parents and children with two gay parents are just as good at Math, given that their background is similar. Meanwhile, in the US, a review of all existing research on same-sex parents discovered that boys with two lesbian parents had a grades point average of 2.9 compared to 2.65 of boys with two heterosexual parents. Girls scored 2.8 when they had two lesbian parents as opposed to 2.9 with two heterosexual parents. In the US, there are more lesbian couples with children than gay men, so the study was conducted with mostly lesbian couples.

Both children and parents are doing just fine

The National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study, which began in 1986, followed 154 lesbian mothers, and in 2013, checked in on 78 of their adolescent children. Researchers compared the self-reported status of the parents and children to the US national standardised samples and found that children “indicated that they had high levels of social, school/academic, and total competence and fewer social problems, rule-breaking, and aggressive and externalising behaviour compared with their matched counterparts.”

So yeah, it seems like science really does back gay and lesbian couples adopting.

The question is, can you see past the stigma and give children a second chance?